Ever since the breakout of Legionnaires disease at the Bellevue-Statford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1976, hotels and hospitals across the world have been equipping shower and faucet heads with filters that are intended to mitigate, if not completely prevent the spread of, this atrocious disease within these public settings. In operation, these filters effectively block legionella bacteria as well as other contaminants from being dispensed from taps from which water is typically intended for human use. Over time, as one may guess, these filters collect quite an abundance of bacteria and other deposits and therefore require routine disinfection or possibly even replacement in order to meet certain governing health codes.
Previously, maintenance of a water tap filter involved a field service person first removing the filter from the associated water tap and cleaning the filter thoroughly to remove any bacteria and other deposits collected thereon. Once cleaned, the field service person inserted the filter back into the water tap. Alternatively, single use filters were exchanged. The date on which the service was performed in either case was recorded manually. Unfortunately, such manual recordation was implemented using pen and paper, or some equivalent, and consequently, these records were oftentimes misplaced if simply not kept accurate due to faulty recordation by the field service persons. As such, many filters would go way beyond the maximum service period and, quite frankly, at that point in time were completely ineffective to block legionella bacteria and other contaminants.